June 18, 2026
Maya Gebeily, Rami Ayyub and Jonathan Saul, Reuters
Three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying 6 million barrels of crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran to end the war that has disrupted global energy supplies.
But in Lebanon, where more than a million people are displaced by the fighting, Israeli forces launched fresh airstrikes on Thursday morning, raising doubt about how far Trump will go to force his wartime allies to halt an offensive he has now pledged to end.
Trump put his signature on Wednesday on the "memorandum of understanding" to end the war, as did Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, bringing it into effect two days earlier than previously expected. It calls for the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of a US blockade of Iran's ports.
